Pentagon officials said there have been conversations with Nokia and Ericsson, Huawei’s leading rivals, regarding the United State’s 5G infrastructure development plans, said Reuters.
As the US seeks alternatives for 5G infrastructure, officials have lobbied Europe to shut out Huawei, warning that its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage.
“I am not sure we are going to have a total US solution,” Ellen Lord, the Department of Defense’s under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment said. “We are talking to Ericsson, we are talking to Nokia quite a bit.”
Lord also said military-to-military discussions about future 5G networks were going well for the US. “There is actually a huge dialog going on about what is the path forward,” and “We have frankly seen a lot of our European allies leaning forward to work with us on that,” said Lord.